The Quarta Colônia State Park pt, Parque Estadual Quarta Colônia is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

in the state of

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

, Brazil. It protects an area of seasonal deciduous forest beside the dam of a hydroelectric power plant that started operation in 2001 on the

Jacuí River The Jacuí River () is a river in Rio Grande do Sul state of southern Brazil. The Jacuí empties into the Guaíba River, an estuarine arm of the Lagoa dos Patos, a large coastal lagoon connected to the Atlantic Ocean. Sources The Jacuí River, ...

. As of 2016 there was no management plan and the park had not been opened for visitors.

Location

The Quarta Colônia State Park is in the municipalities of Agudo and Ibarama, Rio Grande do Sul, on the left bank of the reservoir of the Dona Francisca dam on the

. It has an area of . It protects remnants of seasonal deciduous forest in the

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

biome.

History

The Quarta Colônia State Park was created by governor Germano Antônio Rigotto by state decree 44.186 of 19 December 2005. The park was created as environmental compensation for the Dona Francisca Hydroelectric Plant on the Jacuí River. The main objective is to protect the forest remnants and species listed as endangered in Brazil such as

red-spectacled amazon The red-spectacled amazon (''Amazona pretrei'') is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowla ...

(''Amazona pretrei''),

lowland paca The lowland paca (''Cuniculus paca''), also known as the spotted paca, is a large rodent found in tropical and sub-tropical America, from east-central Mexico to northern Argentina, and has been introduced to Cuba and Algeria. The animal is cal ...

(Cuniculus paca),

brocket deer Brockets or brocket deer are the species of deer in the genus ''Mazama''. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forest ...

(Mazama species),

Geoffroy's cat Geoffroy's cat (''Leopardus geoffroyi'') is a small wild cat native to the southern and central regions of South America. It is about the size of a domestic cat. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because it is widespread and abu ...

(''Leopardus geoffroyi'') and

oncilla The oncilla (''Leopardus tigrinus''), also known as the northern tiger cat, little spotted cat, and tigrillo, is a small spotted cat ranging from Central America to central Brazil. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the popul ...

(''Leopardus tigrinus''). As of 2016 land ownership had not been regularized, there was no management plan and no facilities for visiting the park.

Environment

The park includes hills, cliffs and gentle or steep slopes. Altitudes range from almost to over . The

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

is Cfa (subtropical) with average annual precipitation of about and average temperature from . The forest has been affected by human activity, including clearings and selective extraction, and is in different stages of regeneration.

Notes

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quarta Colonia State Park State parks of Brazil Protected areas established in 2005 2005 establishments in Brazil Protected areas of Rio Grande do Sul